Uganda Cricket Association has announced a list of 33 ladies to start preparation for the Global Qualifiers scheduled for the European summer of 2018.

Uganda qualified for the Global Qualifiers after they defeated Zimbabwe in the final for the African Region qualifiers in Namibia in August this year.

The list of 33 includes all the 14 ladies who were part of the winning team in Namibia with UK based Naomi Kayondo also included in the 33 ladies line up. UAE based Justine Musubika who features for Pioneer locally is also among those that have been summoned.

The team will be handled by head coach Francis Otieno, who will be assisted by Grace Mutyagaba and Habib Mugalula.

They will commence the non residential training on December 1 at Lugogo, when most of the school girls will be done with school.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) caught the Cricket Cranes in sort of slumber mood when they released the fixtures of Division III ICC World Cricket League (WCL) set for May 21-31 in Uganda.The Cricket Cranes have not played a competitive let alone a trial match since November 2016 and although the net sessions have been quietly going on at Lugogo Oval, skipper Davis Karashani and Co. can now up the tempo of their preparations with battle lines drawn.Uganda open their campaign with a fixture against familiar foe Canada on May 23 at Lugogo and then travel to the lakeside oval in Entebbe on the following day for a clash against tricky Singapore. After a day of rest on May 25, Steve Tikolo will be hoping to pick up their third win on the trot at the University Oval in Kyambogo when they lock horns with Oman. Malaysia will be their fourth opponent on May 27 at Lugogo before wrapping up the round-robin fixtures on May 29 with a date against United States of America in Entebbe. The tournament will climax on May 30 with the playoff finals at the three different venues with all the teams competing not only for the championship but also promotion to Division II (the top two) and avoiding relegation to Division IV (the last two finishers).

Having been a ‘victim’ of the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s security drive, with global showpieces being taken away from Uganda twice, Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) is ensuring they are not third time unlucky.

In August 2010, ICC Security Manager Sean Carroll from Australia ruled against Uganda hosting a must-win Intercontinental Shield match against Namibia following two bomb blasts that rocked Kampala on July 11. Uganda went on to comprehensively lose that first-class match by 10 wickets in Windhoek.

Then in October 2014, UCA looked on helplessly as more games were taken away from them with two ‘powerful’ participating nations USA and Bermuda allegedly at the forefront of pressurising ICC to change venue. Both countries from the ICC Americas Region insisted that Uganda was not safe to host the ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division III tournament, once again citing insecurity because of the Al-Shabaab terror alerts then.

In the end, the alerts turned out to be mere scares and justice was served as Uganda finished second at the meet hosted by Malaysia and forthwith progressed to Division II.

Current stateSince ICC Development and Cricket Operations Officer Nigel Mascarenhas wrote to UCA on November 20 revealing that Uganda’s bid had bettered that of Canada and Malaysia to host this year’s event, UCA are seizing every opportunity to make it count this time.

When ICC sent two of its officials Sean Norris (Security Manager) and Gurjit Singh (Development Events Manager) on a four-day working visit last week, UCA worked overtime to ensure the pair give a good review of Uganda when presenting the final reports to their bosses in Dubai, UAE.

UCA chairman Richard Mwami pulled the strings further by squeezing in a ‘priceless’ meeting between the ICC officials with the Minister of Sports and Education Janet Museveni at the State House in Nakasero last Friday.

The First Lady has now pumped up the volume in the cricket fraternity with a couple of tweets on her social media page to prove that UCA have government’s full backing to pull off a successful event.

“The ICC delegation was in the country to ascertain Uganda’s sustainability to host the WCL Tournament,” read one of her tweets.

The one that went viral goes: “We’re ready to host the ICC tournament and we want to see cricket in Uganda revived. Uganda can be banked on to host the tournament.” Prior to meeting Minister, Norris and Singh also met the Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, Assistant Inspector General of Police (IGP) Andrew Sorowen alongside several security firms and visited social amenities like Nakasero Hospital plus inspecting the three ovals; Entebbe, Kyambogo and Lugogo, where the tournament will be played.

And with the backing from the highest of hierarchies in Uganda, UCA will, now, not only be hoping to host an incident-free event but also look to successfully woo more sponsors on board to bolster the growth of the gentleman’s game here.

The Baby Cricket Cranes must beat a bunch of permutations if they are to progress to next year’s ICC U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.

A third appearance at the global stage will be a reality if Henry Okecho’s boys follow up yesterday’s nine-wicket win over Papua New Guinea (PNG) with another big one when they face Ireland in an epic qualifier in Malaysia today.

“We will carry this momentum from the PNG win into tomorrow (today)’s game,” coach Henry Okecho told Daily Monitor on phone from the team base at Hotel Istana in Kuala Lumpur. However, victory in their final round-robin contest alone is not enough. Uganda must also pray that one of unbeaten sides Ireland and Nepal falters in their remaining fixtures. “Our job is to beat Ireland and see how everything else goes. We have some plans for Ireland but will look at the wicket in the morning and take a decision,” Okecho said about a possibility to change his playing side.

Like men on a mission, a charged bowling unit led by man-of-match Frank Akankwasa (3/15) and Abdallah Lubega (2/14) bowled out the Asian side for 83 runs in 30.4 overs.

Then seven boundaries and three sixes in a quick-fire half-century of 59 runs off 37 balls from opener Zephaniah Arinaitwe plus a 20-run combo from Kenneth Waiswa (13) and John Gabula (8) sealed the emphatic win.